2020 release. Jeremy Pelt's unquenchable curiosity has made him one of the most multi-faceted of jazz artists. Whether it be as a leader, a sideman, an accompanist or a composer, Pelt has investigated nearly every aspect and genre in jazz - from electric to eclectic, Be-Bop to Free-Bop. Here Pelt joins forces with the legendary George Cables on piano and Peter Washington laying down the bass lines. All but one tune on the setlist are slow-ish numbers but this is not your father's ballad record. Each member of the trio is able to pour some old wine into new bottles, aware of and perhaps shaped by the past but operating very much in the moment. Together with Cables' lush voicings and solid tone and Washinton's always-inspired bass lines and solos, Pelt's new recording sets a high bar for all trio recordings that follow in the remainder of 2020.

The Philadelphia-born trumpeter-bandleader Wallace Roney has been a significant force on the jazz scene from the age 16. With twenty one recordings as a leader, and some impressive work with McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, and as the proteg� of Miles Davis. Roney has secured his place in jazz history as a member of VSOP. This new CD, features Roney as the mentor and guiding light of a quicksilver group of the Next Generation Jazz Artists: Emilio Modeste (saxes), Oscar Williams II (piano), Paul Cuffari (bass) and Kojo Odu Roney (drums). The core group is augmented by Philadelphia guitarist Quitin Zoto and the legendary drummer, Lenny White, who played on Miles Davis' classic Bitches Brew recording. From the pointillistically beautiful "Why Should There Be Stars" to the new sounds of Dave Liebman's "New Breed" Roney and company offer a rare glimpse into the future of jazz.

The dynamic duo of pianist David Kikoski and bassist Boris Kozlov is a triumph of musicality and virtuosity. There's some kind of magic happening between the two kindred spirits that goes beyond the notes. The musical connection between the two goes back more than 20 years. They have continued to play together regularly over the years in groups like the Mingus Big Band, in Kikoski's own trio and the all-star post-bop cooperative Opus 5. You can feel their sense of telepathy throughout Sure Thing and it is readily apparent on Kikoski's original compositions like "B Flat Tune," "E" and "Strength for Change," on the swinging version of John Coltrane's "Satellite" and the duo's faithful reading of keyboardist Keith Emerson's classically influenced "Fugue" from "The Endless Enigma". Their playful, relaxed chemistry permeates all eight tunes here and makes Sure Thing a true work of collaborative genius.

2018 release. Recorded live in Paris at the famed Sunside/Sunset Jazz Club, Jeremy and his colleagues deliver a set of searing intensity and unparalleled musicianship. Pelt's group is that rarest of all things in jazz, a working band, and the communication that comes from extensive time spent playing together is evident. All the players are among the foremost 30-something neo-bop players in jazz today giving the group an all-star-type reputation with a well-rehearsed sound that comes only with familiarity and countless gigs. Pelt's own playing has earned accolades for his staggering virtuosity, which has elicited comparisons to trumpet icons like Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard, as well as for his studious, cerebral approach to the music. On this particular night in Paris, Pelt focused all his attention on creating the perfect phrase to fit each musical moment, sculpting long lines that let the music breathe and while building spontaneous ideas into finely-crafted miniatures.

2020 release. It may be somewhat ironic, yet ultimately fitting that this, the final recording by Larry Willis, brought the veteran pianist/composer right back to the place where he first began his impressive career as recording artist that spanned over a period of six decades. The Harlem, New York born Willis first entered the hallowed halls of Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio as a twenty-two year old graduate of the Manhattan School of Music on January 29, 1965 to record with Jackie McLean for Blue Note Records. Willis's expansive resume includes entries with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Stan Getz, Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, Clifford Jordan, Carmen McRae, David "Fathead" Newman, Woody Shaw, and many more. He appeared on hundreds of albums as a sideman and dozens more as a leader of his own impressive bands. The music played here with long-time friends Victor Lewis and Joe Ford, and his relatively new colleague Jeremy Pelt shows Larry Willis displaying the intense creativity and impeccable taste which made him once of the most respected keyboard artists in jazz.

It is only natural that Jeremy Pelt's voracious curiosity would lead him to investigate the West African Griot tradition where stories, reminiscences and accomplishments from times past are handed down as oral histories. Researchers such as Art Taylor, William Russell and Alan Lomax have preserved interviews with older jazzmen but for his Griot odyssey, Pelt turns to his own peer group to record their thoughts on creating jazz, playing jazz and experiencing the life of a jazz musician of color in our own time. Each brief interview is followed by a composition by Pelt which perfectly captures the sentiments and emotions of it's spoken-word prelude. To help him bring his vision to life, Pelt has assembled a hand-picked group of colleagues, featuring vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Vicente Archer, harpist Brandee Younger and others. The tunes themselves run the gamut from the remarkable mixing of the sacred and the secular in "Carry Christ Wherever You Are," to the Monk-like gallumphing opening unison in "Don't Dog the Source," and the urgent, "Underdog." As Pelt himself says, "I want people to understand that this is for everybody," that the project was undertaken to perhaps help them "understand that whatever they might be going through, their perspectives might run parallel to those of people who are generations apart from them. Maybe, to a certain extent, these younger people will find themselves in these stories."

2018 release. The music of Joel Harrison stubbornly defies categorizing. You can try using all the post-this, proto-that gibberish you can think of but it is impossible. From the new-age of Paul Winter to the no-wave of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks; from the complex poly-everything of Charles Ives to the deceptively simple deconstruction of American folk ballads, Joel Harrison is perhaps the most imaginative, inventive and inclusive artist in contemporary jazz music. Angel Band is the third in his acclaimed Free Country series of projects and, like it's predecessors, features a unique mix of jazz interpretations of unlikely material drawn from various forms of Americana. Saxophonist David Binney obviously shares Harrison's musical vision as does pianist Uri Caine whose pianism here ranges from pointillistic to pugilistic. But for all the considerable talents of the side artists this is Harrison's show. As today's emaciated, blog-fed music scene staggers around looking for the newest trend (no matter how shallow) Harrison continues to cross and combine genres in order to communicate with his listener, challenge pre-conceived notions of "how it should go," and bring out new qualities in familiar music.

2018 release. Jazz duo recordings can provide an exceedingly wide range of musical expression including but not limited to, profundity, humor, tenderness, introspection, exuberance and a whole host of others which can all change at the drop of a flatted-fifth. This type of mercurial interplay is on full display on this live gig from the Th�atre Port-Royal in Montreal, Canada. Morgan and Cables played together frequently and their improvising is imbued with an almost telepathic communication. Cables' large piano tone is the perfect accompaniment to Morgan's slightly dry, Bird-like sound. At the same time, their spontaneity and sheer joy of music making succeeds in even making the chestnut "All the Things You Are" sound fresh and newly wrought.

2019 release. Eric Alexander's prowess on the tenor saxophone, his unimpeachable virtuosity and technical skill, is obvious to anyone who has paid attention to his fluent and stirring work over the past three decades. His reputation as a hard-blowing jazz gladiator has stood him well with fellow musicians and loyal listeners. Admired and enjoyed for his exceptional powers, Alexander is a model of mainstream jazz expertise. However, on this HighNote recording Eric, backed by three of his favorite colleagues and the lush sounds of a string orchestra, brings his lyrical side to the fore. "I wanted to get straight into the beauty of a song, always putting the melody first, " Alexander states about his expressed intentions for the album. "Improvisations are the icing on the cake." With the fruition of this dream project Alexander has again succeeded in proving that his long obvious gifts as a player are equaled by his respect for the gift of song.

When pianist Bill Charlap featured Tom Harrell at a recent gig with his trio at New York's Jazz Standard, he summarized the trumpeter's genius as concisely as anyone could. "It is our honor and privilege," he announced, "To share the bandstand with a man who is a living, breathing melody." For this latest HighNote release, featuring a razor-sharp quintet with saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Charles Altura, Harrell & company combine complex compositions, seductive rhythms, advanced harmonic concepts, vibrant solos and sheer inspiration in an album which transcends the jazz idiom. This is perhaps Harrell's most imaginative recording to-date, with the scoring for the piano-less, tenor sax and guitar front line ensemble sui generis among his work.

2018 release. It will come as no surprise to fans of Azar Lawrence that his life's work is to bridge the gap between his listeners and the Elementals (the spiritual essences of the four elements earth, air, fire and water). For over four decades he has unstintingly explored music as a healing force, and the mystical connections between past and future, myth and fact, the physical world and that which is beyond. Lawrence hopes that in a holistic sense, Elementals encourages a spiritual awakening. "All of this music is healing music; that's our whole concept is to heal and uplift," he explains. "If it's delivered and received on the right level, it will raise our own vibrations and bring us in touch with those higher spirits that respond when the music is pure with love and joy." It also happens to be an intensely powerful and swinging recording.

Recorded in 1985 after a break from recording and time spent living in Barbados and Liberia, Nina's Back features a rejuvenated Nina Simone reaching out to a wider musical audience. Featuring a number of memorable original Simone compositions, the band includes horns and backup singers for a recording that's unique in Nina's catalog. Previously released originally on LP and cassette 1985 and CD in 1988 - all with older album covers.

Deluxe edition features eight bonus tracks - alternate takes from the surviving four-track session reels, including an explosive rendition of the single, "Soul Vibrations," extended versions of the title track and "Little Sunflower," plus two fantastic jazzy readings of "Theme from Valley of the Dolls." Afro-Harping is the first of a rarefied and outstanding trilogy of soul-jazz albums by Dorothy Ashby. Remastered from the original tapes, Afro-Harping is filled front-to-back with sumptuous and hypnotic grooves. It's African percussion, soulful orchestrations, in-the-pocket rhythms and Dorothy's virtuosity take it beyond jazzy mood music and made it a favorite of beat heads and producers.

NEW DAY

SEPTEMBER NIGHT

2019 release. Acoustic Space is the first installment in The Invisible Light trilogy helmed by Grammy- and Oscar-winning producer T Bone Burnett in collaboration with Jay Bellerose and Keefus Ciancia. Burnett describes the trilogy as "an experimental song cycle" which consists of a single piece of poetry broken down into distinct songs. The albums explore the idea that society has been subject to over a century of electronic programming, a "programming epidemic".

Norah Jones' seminal debut album, Come Away With Me, became a global phenomenon reaching #1 in 20 countries, selling nearly 30 million copies, and sweeping the 2003 GRAMMY Awards with 8 wins including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. The remastered 20th Anniversary Edition captures the emergence of a singular talent on this now-classic album.

2022 release. Guitarist Julian Lage discovers new possibilities with orchestration on the follow-up to his acclaimed 2021 Blue Note debut, Squintby, expanding his trio with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King with the addition of fellow guitarist (and Blue Note labelmate) Bill Frisell. A View With A Room presents 10 compelling new original compositions by Lage that explore a wide range of guitar sounds and textures with these two distinctive masters seamlessly blending their unique 6-string styles.

Live archive release. The First Lady of Song returns to Berlin, Home of her legendary concerts. Recorded in 1962 but never released, hear the most popular jazz singer of all time deliver an iconic performance at Sportpalast Berlin for the first time. This recording finds Ella and her band at the top of their game recorded in high fidelity stereo. With only two songs repeated from her hit record "Mack The Knife" two years earlier, this undiscovered recording stands on it's own.

2023 release. Artemis returns with their second Blue Note album In Real Time, a marvelous follow-up that highlights the improvisational strength of it's members as well as their respective gifts as composers. A dynamic new line-up of the collective features founding members Renee Rosnes (piano), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Noriko Ueda (bass), and Allison Miller (drums) joined by newcomers Nicole Glover (tenor saxophone) and Alexa Tarantino (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and flute).

Two CDs. A thrilling, previously unissued live recording of Elvin Jones' quartet that captures the legendary drummer's emergence as a bandleader at a little-known NYC club where he had a weekly residency after leaving John Coltrane's band in the late 1960s. Featuring Joe Farrell on tenor saxophone, Billy Greene on piano, and Wilbur Little on bass, Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub was recorded between July 28-30, 1967, just two weeks after Coltrane passed on July 17.

Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Chris Botti gets back to the jazz essence of his artistry on his upcoming album, Vol. 1. The album features beautiful new ballad renditions of standards including "My Funny Valentine," and "Someday My Prince Will Come," as well as a cover of Coldplay's "Fix You" and the vocal feature "Paris" with John Splithoff. Produced by David Foster, Vol. 1 features performances by violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Taylor Eigsti, guitarist Gilad Hekselman and others. CD Packaging: Softpak CD

Digitally remastered. This special 60th-anniversary reissue of groundbreaking jazz artist Sun Ra's iconic 1962 album, The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, features all analog remastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. The package includes Tom Wilson's original liner notes, plus insightful new essays by jazz historian Ben Young and the journalist, radio personality and author Irwin Chusid

Two CDs. Rollins in Holland: The 1967 Studio & Live Recordings is Resonance Records' first archival release from the Saxophone Colossus, Sonny Rollins. This deluxe set officially sanctioned by Rollins includes three different previously unissued 1967 performances with bassist Ruud Jacobs (bass) and Han Bennink (drums). With extensive booklet of unseen photos and essays by Aidan Levy and Frank Jochemsen, plus interviews with Sonny Rollins and Han Bennink, a remembrance of Ruud Jacobs, and more.

Featuring truly a 'who's who' of late 60s British jazz, this professionally recorded concert, recorded April 18, 1969 in Germany, has never before been released. At the time of the recording of this show, Surman had just finished recording his second album as a leader, How Many Clouds Can You See, so this is a unique chance to get an expanded view of his formative work as a leader and also at the early work of his musical compatriots who appear here with him. Surman states that "choice of material was up to me... and I wrote several pieces especially for the workshop-but it was customary to invite a few participants to bring a piece of their own if they wanted to; hence the pieces from Kenny, Erich, and Fritz."